


The Last Price

by SheppardMcKay



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Established Relationship, M/M, episode 3.06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-14
Updated: 2012-11-14
Packaged: 2017-11-18 15:12:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/562423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheppardMcKay/pseuds/SheppardMcKay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was time to pay for what he'd been given.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Price

**Author's Note:**

> Man, this episode rocked. Scott Caan was amazing. The McDanno hug, the tears. *sigh*

Why was it so sunny, Danny asked himself. It shouldn't be sunny. It should be dark. Dark and cloudy to match how cold he was.

At the moment he couldn't tell if he was fighting the urge to tremble from overtaxed muscles straining to remain motionless or from shivering at the cold. Forget the sun blazing overhead, it must be freezing. Why else would his insides feel they were being crystallized and shaken to a fine powder?

It couldn't be because he was about to lose everything. Again.

Everything that mattered, he always managed to lose it. Always when he was happiest.

He'd been having the greatest summer of his young life with his best friend, Billy Selway, only to have him cruelly ripped away. 

He'd been given the gift of fatherhood, only to lose Grace, his partner and his friend. 

He'd been married to a woman he loved more than anything, he had his daughter Grace, his two great loves. Then Rachel had said she couldn't be with him, taking his daughter with her. Eventually she took her so far he had no choice but to follow or else lose the one thing that gave his life meaning anymore.  

He'd followed his daughter to be happy but lost his family and his home to do it.

Just when he thought he was settling into Island life he lost his brother. 

He thought he'd gained his family back, plus one, a new child to love, only to watch it all turn to ashes before his eyes. 

Now? Now he had Steve. His partner in work and perhaps soon, he'd hoped, in life. Their relationship had turned to love so sweetly and gently it was almost like it had always been there, just waiting for them to awaken to it. And they had. Danny had been so happy.

But, like always, the reckoning had come. It was time to pay for what he'd been given. 

Danny didn't want to pay the fee any longer.

Steve needed to go. Needed to get far, far away from Danny. Get away, get to Grace and love her and care for her. Do it for her and for Danny. 

And of course, the stupid fool wouldn't go. Decided to set up shop right at ground zero and crouch not three feet from the tollbooth, the bomb that was poised to exact it's horrific price. 

Danny didn't want it to be Steve. He couldn't take that. He thought even if the bomb were to take Steve and spare him somehow he would soon follow anyway. Because he couldn't take that. Not this time. This would finally be too much. The one that would break him. 

He was afraid for himself, no question. You'd have to be an idiot not to be scared. But he was terrified for Steve to be standing at the abyss too. Steve needed to stay. He needed to take care of everyone. Of Grace. Of Mary. Chin and Kono needed their Bossman and friend. Even Kamekona needed him to keep out of trouble. Max needed him to shake him up and get him out of the lab and his head now and then.  

Danny needed him like he needed to breathe. But what he wanted was for him to be safe and Mr. Save-The-World wasn't having it. 

"Forget about it." 

Danny wanted to. He wanted to forget this mess and go back a few hours to wondering if he had time to iron his shirt to go with his best suit before picking Grace up and had he remembered to put new batteries in the camera for Steve to take pictures of him twirling his beautiful baby girl across the dance floor. He'd also planned to get a few of Steve doing the same.

Danny closed his eyes. It seemed it was time to pay again and if the alternative was to be Grace or Steve, then there really was no choice. He just didn't think it was too much to ask for Steve to be spared in exchange.

The most frightening moments of his life, a last look at Steve, a silent goodbye to Grace and then...

Nothing. The bomb technician had done his job and succeeded. 

Disbelief.

"Clear!" 

Danny dropped his arms and grabbed his knees. Thank you, was all he could think. Thank you. Thank you.  

Thank you to the awesome bomb technician. He swears, if he hadn't already bought Steve a ring that he had hidden away in the cookie jar, a place Steve never looked, he might have offered marriage on the spot to this guy. Instead, he was making a donation and possibly buying this guy a present every Christmas for the rest of his life. He might kiss him too. Steve was an understanding guy.

Steve. Steve looked like he'd just gone thru BUD/s. Twice.

He walked to Steve on shaky legs and was met halfway and enveloped in the tightest embrace he'd ever experienced in his life. Nothing ever felt so good.

"I love you," was whispered over and over in both of their cracked, husky voices. Steve buried his face in Danny's hair, afraid to let go. Danny pressed his lips to Steve's throat and hid his face against his shoulder. 

When they finally let go, just a little, to lock gazes, tears don't just threaten but spill over and cascade down cheeks. 

"Thank you," Danny rasped. Steve looked at him with eyes full of love and just a hint of _"where was I going to go, you idiot?"_ in them.

Danny laughed. Thank you, God, he thought. Thank you, Life. Thank you.  
He thinks maybe he just paid his last price.  

He also thinks he might be paying a trip to the cookie jar.

He has two promises to himself to keep tonight.


End file.
